ALLIED BOMBING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1943, Page 4

ALLIED BOMBING

MAIN TOPIC IN GERMANY AT PRESENT DISPIRITED ADMISSIONS. “NOT EASY TO DEMAND CONFIDENCE.” (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, April 19. Allied air superiority is the main topic of conversation in Germany. Swiss reports say German radio commentators and newspapers are attempting to explain why British bombers are able to get through to attack Germany. The Nazi Party organ at Mannheim says: “It is no use denying that for the time being we lack superiority in the air on various sectors of the front. Because of present development in air warfare it is impossible to block the way to attackers completely. Foi' a long time we have been forced to wage a two-front war in the air If we could defeat the enemy in the East (Russia) quickly, we could effect the necessary change and concentration, but we do not rely on this possibility.” The “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” states: “After raids the question asked is: “How long will they go on? It is certainly not easy to demand confidence over and over again. We have endured a winter that has strained our nerves to the utmost.” The “Gazette de Lausanne,” commenting on the R.A.F’s. raids on Germany, says: “R.A.F. flyers have not lost the habit which Mr Chamberlain impressed on them at the beginning of the war. They still drop thousands of pamphlets with their plentiful bombs. The Rhineland population recently found among ruins messages promising exceptionally violent raids on Hitler’s birthday, April 20. The pamphlets declared: ‘Nothing will remain except the Essen Cathedral spire, on which Hitler can climb to see that once there was a town spreading at its feet.’ ” FANCY PICTURES OF HITLER FIGHTING MISFORTUNE. PAINTED BY GOEBBELS & GOERING. (Received This Day, Noon.) ■ LONDON, April 19. An admission that the war had reached its hardest stage, with the end or a way out of burdens nowhere in sight, came from Goebbels and Goering, addressing Germans on the eve of Hitler’s birthday. Goebbels, broadcasting, described Hitler’s way of life as “unobstrusive” and claimed that Hitler truly represents the image of the German people. “If one could draw the nation’s face,” said Goebbels, “it would most likely show profound war time changes, which we find, with serene pride, in the Fuehrer’s face —furrows of hardness, determination and suffering, of endurance, sacrifice, bitterness and strain. Germans often complain that the Fuehrer, although the decisive factor in the whole political and military trend of events, is almost completely hidden by his work. This is in eloquent contrast with the practice of everyday nonentities in the enemy camp, who never miss an opportunity of showing themselves in the full brilliance of the world’s footlights.” Goebbels paid a tribute to Hitler, “whom we have learned to live from the bottom of our hearts” for his manner of struggling “with stubborn grimness against the hard and painful blows of fate.” A proclamatipn from Goering, offering birthday congratulations to Hitler, published in German papers, says: “Germany's fate lies in the Fuehrer’s firm hand. He never • allows himself rest. A superhuman burden of work is weighing upon him. His simple, soldier-like bearing, unremitting sense of duty and readiness for any sacrifice, are a glowing example to all. Today the issue is between victory and annihilation. The time of severest trials has come for every single German. The Fuehrer knows how bitter are the sa-. crifices this war imposes on battlefields and in those regions of Germany which are threatened from the air, but the Fuehrer demands sacrifice, not for him, but for the freedom of the Fatherland and the existence of the nation and Reich.”